I was late uploading this story because of reasons, but I assure you it was finished Saturday.

WireLurker

It usually took Bryan Grady at least three days to fully get over his jetlag so when he walked into the conference room he was feeling slightly out of it, having only had eight hours between stepping off the plane and sitting down at the table. He was the first one to arrive as always, which gave him some time to yawn in private.

Beijing was fourteen hours ahead of Chicago, where he was from, and it was the middle of the night as far as his brain was concerned. He didn’t mind business trips but preferred them when they lasted a week or more so he could get used to the time change. He glanced at his phone, not expecting to see a message from his wife but hoping he would just the same. There was nothing and he sighed.

While he was considering sending Marissa a message for her to get when she woke up, the door opened again and several men came into the room. Three of them were Chinese and a fourth had sandy brown hair and a sleepy look on his face that clearly told Bryan that he was from America too.

“Good afternoon,” Bryan said, standing up to greet them. His Chinese was excellent, which was why he was chosen for the job, and the three men looked relieved. “It’s good to see you.”

“Good afternoon,” the tallest of the three said. Bryan had seen pictures of all of them but was fairly certain this man’s name was Winston, because he’d thought it was strange for a Chinese man to have an English name. “Thank you for coming so quickly.”

“This is a problem for all of us,” Bryan said. “People think our product is supposed to be virus-proof, and while we all know that’s impossible, there’s still that perception we need to be aware of.” He looked at the sandy-haired man, who was looking between Bryan and Winston. His confusion was evident and Bryan smiled at him, switching back to English. “Don’t speak Chinese, huh?”

“Not a word. My interpreter isn’t here yet, so I’m kind of stuck.” He held out a hand for Bryan to shake. “Jack Bolton. I’m from the Australian office. Our regular guy got sick so I had to come in his place.”

“I’ll do my best to remember to translate for you,” Bryan said, hoping Jack’s interpreter came soon. They had a problem to deal with and stopping to explain everything twice was going to get tiring very quickly. “You’re one of the PR guys?”

“I’m actually one of the developers in the Australian area. My specialty is—“ He was cut off as a slender man in a suit that wasn’t half as sharp as Winston’s came in, bowing apologetically.

“I’m sorry I’m late,” he said. “I got lost.”

“That’s no problem,” Winston said with a wave of his hand. “Let’s get started. What we’re looking at is malware, not a virus, and it’s a nasty piece of work.” Bryan, who had started as a developer and worked his way up the food chain, didn’t feel much like dancing around the subject and sat forward.

“What does it do?”

“I’ll show you,” Winston said, taking out a laptop. It was a MacBook Pro, the top of the line model, and he set it on the table. “It’s very subtle. Unlike a Windows computer that prompts you to install a fake program to set up malware in your computer, WireLurker is hidden inside an app. It records your data and when it’s supposed to be connecting with your data on the website, it’s actually sending it to hackers.” He turned on the computer. “And as soon as you try to remove it, it does this.”

The men around the table leaned in to see a computer screen that looked completely normal in every way. Winston typed in his password and the computer’s screen suddenly fuzzed and distorted. It started making a strange humming sound, and when Winston tried to push any of the keys it turned into a sound that reminded him of an old computer modem trying to connect. The men around the table started shouting at Winston to turn it off in both Chinese and English, and he slammed the MacBook closed with a shake of his head.

“How many cases of this do we have?”

“Only four or five,” Winston said. “And you think that’s bad, it gets worse.” He took out an iPhone and held it up. “Since the app syncs with the one on your phone, the malware gets on it too. And then your phone is nonfunctional. If you download this app on your computer, you’re sending data to hackers and if you try and take it off either your phone or your computer, it bricks them both.” The interpreter told all of this to Jack and he frowned and spoke in English.

“How does it get to the phone? Bounces from the website?”

“It’s transmitted wirelessly during the sync,” Winston said, and the interpreter explained it to Jack. “And any compatible computer that’s in sync range is vulnerable.”

“How is that possible? That technology can’t possibly exist,” Bryan said. His heart was pounding in his chest and he felt it skip a beat or two. His stomach dropped several feet. The last time that had happened, the battery in his pacemaker had been running out. If that was what was happening, he would have to have it replaced while he was in China and it was possibly the last thing he wanted to happen. He had no idea how insurance would work, what kind of quality he would be getting, and how long it would take to recover.

“We don’t know,” Winston said. “That’s why you and Mr. Bolton are here. We have to determine what kind of technology we are looking at and our information says that the malware originated in either America or Australia.”

“You can’t possibly suspect America of doing something like this!” Bryan stood up, indignantly. His heart was going wild in his chest but he tried to ignore it. Their accusations were as good as saying that someone from Apple was sabotaging their own product and he knew it was impossible. Jack’s interpreter was speaking so rapidly that he was sure things were getting missed but he couldn’t hear over the roaring in his ears. “You can’t—“ His words were cut off abruptly as his heart seized up, and he grabbed for his chest.

“Mr. Grady?” Winston looked at him, then at Jack, then back at Bryan as he crumpled to the ground, struggling to breathe. No one seemed terribly concerned about what was happening. In fact, they were all looking at him with curiosity, murmuring to each other. Bryan was certain he was asking for a doctor but he couldn’t hear anything coming out of his mouth and the rest of the men in the room were going about their business.

“The technology certainly performs as promised,” Winston said to Jack as the light began to go out of Bryan’s eyes. “How did you manage to hack a medical appliance with a simple piece of malware?” He was speaking Chinese now, and when Jack replied he was speaking it fluently.

“I’ll be happy to tell you that,” he said with a grin, just before he spoke the last words Bryan would ever hear. “As soon as we agree on a price.”

I am not the world’s biggest fan of Christmas music. Even when I was a kid it wasn’t the most wonderful time of the year for me. I think a big part of it is that there only about 10 songs that are popular, and those popular songs have been done to death by fifty people. And don’t get me started on the good old date rape Christmas song.

It does seem to be good for one thing, though. I got a hell of an idea while I was standing in the recovery area listening to yet another version of Oh Holy Night.

You may not know this but I’m not a Christian. I’m actually a Buddhist and have been for 16 or 17 years now. What you may not know about Buddhists is that we respect Jesus as a teacher and honor him. My temple in Chicago even celebrated Easter with a dharma talk that focused on his lessons. Our priest discussed how Jesus can be considered a bodhisattva because he became enlightened and then shared his wisdom with others to help them become good people and enlightened as well.

I was, however, raised in a Christian family. My mother took me to a lot of Protestant churches looking for the one that fit her best, but I also joined friends for Catholic mass and attended services at synagogues. I had friends who told me about Hinduism and learned about the Sikh faith from other friends, then went to a Catholic college and had to take religion classes. I turned all this over in my head and chose to become Buddhist.

With this extensive background in what was basically comparative religion, I had Some Questions. My main character also has some questions that he really can’t get answers to because of his church. I’m not writing a religious book but parts of it may end up being seen as somewhat spiritual. I’m okay with that.

And for the record, there are a couple of Christmas songs that I like. I like Christmas is the Time to Say I Love You, Bruce Springsteen’s version of Santa Clause is Coming to Town, and the Christmas Canon from Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

Then we take that information to the Most Dangerous Writing App and write for three terrifying minutes then share the results. The result was a small snippet that I thought had some promise, so I wrote a little more on it to see what I could come up with. Sammy and Brandy got a little more interesting for sure.

Sacked

Brandy was tired. The kind of tired that went so deep it felt like she was walking through water. She’d taken the overnight shift when it had opened up because the pay was better but after three months she still wasn’t used to her new sleep schedule. People kept telling her it would calm down a little after the holidays but she wasn’t betting on it. The warehouse was one of thousands that belonged to the world’s largest online retailer and it wasn’t like people stopped ordering laptops and twenty pound bags of marshmallows just because it was suddenly January 2nd.

Tonight had been especially difficult because her friend Sammy hadn’t been there. Over the last few months they’d become almost inseparable in the warehouse, keeping an eye on each other and keeping each other awake when necessary. They’d clocked in together at 11 PM but he’d been called to the office less than an hour later and she hadn’t seen him since.

She was just thinking about calling him when she saw him coming up the sidewalk that wrapped around the parking lot. His head was down and he looked like he meant business. She hadn’t even known he’d left the warehouse.

“What are you doing?” Brandy looked at Sammy in surprise as she kept walking across the lot to her car. The sun was just coming up but she was able to see what looked like a duffel bag under his arm. “Let’s go to the Waffle House and I’ll buy us some hashbrowns.” Sammy stopped and looked at her, then jogged over to join her on her way to the car.

“Sure,” Brandy said with a laugh. “And then later we’ll tear down some voting booths too. Full-on anarchy will ensue, I’m sure.” She opened her car door. “Come on, I’ve got Dad’s car. Hashbrowns. And waffles, if you play your cards right.” Sammy didn’t answer her, only turned and started walking back toward the building in the midst of the crowd of people that were coming out of the open doors. Cursing, she relocked her door and ran after him. “Sammy,” Brandy called. He didn’t turn this time and she ran faster until she caught up with him. “Seriously, what are you doing?”

“They fired me,” he said. “I’ve got nothing to lose now so I’m gonna do what I always wanted and blow this place up.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“Of course I’m serious. Look around. What do you see?” Brandy looked at the faces passing on their way to the parking lot, then shrugged. “Last shift change. Five to seven AM is the only time there’s no one in this place. No one’s gonna get hurt. The only thing that’s gonna get hurt is this temple to gleefully unbridled capitalism.”

“Because you got fired?”

“No, because of why I got fired.” Sammy stopped walking and looked at Brandy seriously. “They fired me because I’m trans.” Brandy stared at him in shock.

“What? They can’t do that. Isn’t that against the law?”

“Not in this state. They can fire you for any reason they want and they actually don’t even have to tell you why.” He took a deep breath. “I asked them why they were firing me. I said I’ve been on time every day, only ever called in sick once. I even made employee of the month. They said it’s not working out anymore. When I asked if they’d give me a reference for somewhere else, they said they wouldn’t feel comfortable doing it for someone like me.”

“That’s ridiculous.” Sammy started walking again and Brandy followed him, knowing that she should turn around and leave before she got any further into this but unable to let her friend go without a fight. “Just forget about them. I’ll help you find another job. Hell, we can both get other jobs. Christmas is in a month, we can get hired as holiday help and come up with something better later.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Sammy said. “After I plant these bombs.”

“Sammy—“

“Look. This country doesn’t want people like me in it. They pass laws that basically make it so I can’t go to the bathroom in public, and find new and more creative ways to keep me from getting my hormones. Now they’ve taken away my job, and it’s going to be harder to find one now that I’ve started transitioning.” He shook his head. “This isn’t about making some kind of statement, if that’s what you’re thinking. It’s revenge, plain and simple. And if you don’t want in on it, you should leave now. If everything goes as planned, they’ll never be able to connect it to me.”

“How? They’re going to know it was you, they just fired you.”

“Good thing I’m in Florida,” Sammy said.

“What?”

“According to Megabus and my debit card I’m currently on the way to Orlando. Once I get this stuff planted, I’m getting on an actual bus to Orlando that should get there about the same time as the Megabus. By the time these go off I’ll be headed down South and I won’t be coming back until after the New Year.” Sammy raised an eyebrow at her. “You’re welcome to come if you like.”

“What would I do in Florida?”

“I don’t know. Disney World?”

The flow of people around them had slowed to a trickle, and by the time they reached the warehouse they were the only ones on the sidewalk. The doors were still open, though, and Sammy walked through them as if he belonged there. Brandy looked around to see if anyone was watching, then went after him.

Another prompt from me this week! I went with a quetzal because I just love the damn things so much. Fun fact: I have a large quetzal tattoo and top of my bucket list is to see a live one. Possibly eating an avocado in the bargain.

A Bird in the Bag

When the drugs started wearing off, the bird was completely confused as to where he was. It was dark, stuffy, and he could hear voices all around him. There was only one thing he knew for sure, and that was that he wasn’t in South America anymore. He shifted slightly, testing the limits. How much he was able to move. How stiff his prison was. What little information he came up with was stored in the back of his mind for when he would be able to make a move.

He listened closely. The bird had no idea what human voices were saying when they made their words, but he’d heard enough of them to interpret what was going on. The people closest to him were whispering, which made them even more difficult to hear, but he could tell they were doing something they weren’t supposed to be doing. It took him a few seconds, possibly because of the drugs still in his system, to realize they were talking about him.

***

“How much longer are we going to be delayed?” Arturo looked around the terminal for the tenth time and Alicia reached over and pinched his arm. “Ow! What was that for?”

“Do the words ‘act natural’ mean nothing to you? You keep looking around like you’re expecting someone to come after us.” She stretched out her legs and put one on either side of the black duffel bag. “We made it through security in Guatemala, we just have to make our connection and then our friend Malik will walk us through customs. The hardest part is over.”

“This was too risky,” he said, shaking his head. “Parrots and lories are one thing but this thing is the national damn bird of Guatemala. Forget a fine, we’re looking at real jail time. In South America. The only place with worse prisons than South America is China.”

“I don’t know where you get ideas like this,” Alicia sighed. “Besides, this bird is going be the last bird. You know how much that thing is worth?” She lowered her voice even further. “Resplendent Quetzal. Our buyer is paying us two million dollars. That’s a million dollars each. We can retire. Open an actual pet store. Or a bar. We can do whatever we want.”

“I don’t know what I was thinking. I don’t know what I was thinking.” Arturo rubbed his forehead. “Oh my God.”

“Will you please just shut up?” Alicia leaned back in her chair. “It’s going to go fine.”

***

The bird was starting to remember what he was. His wings and legs were slowly unfreezing, tingling as the feeling came back. Whatever they had given him was almost out of his system and he made a soft clucking sound to check whether or not he was still able to make noise. It didn’t sound quite right and he made another, a little louder, and wriggled to the side. He was almost there. And when he got all the way there, the humans who had stuck him in this bag were going to regret doing it. Majestic though he was, his beak was still sharp.

***

“Oh my God,” Arturo said, sitting forward suddenly. “It moved. The bag moved. Did you just see it move?”

“It didn’t move,” Alicia said. She pushed the bag with her foot. “It’s just the material settling. I gave the stupid thing the same amount I gave that cockatoo, and that one was still dopey when we met the buyer. They weighed about the same, I figured the dose was the same.”

“I swear it moved. Maybe we should take it to the bathroom and check. Make sure it’s still asleep.” He looked around the terminal, which was crowded and getting more so every minute. “You have more of the medication, right?”

“It didn’t move,” insisted Alicia. “Besides, if I gave that bird more dope it might not survive the trip. Alive, that thing’s worth two million. Dead, it’s just a bunch of green and red feathers and a prison sentence. No way. We’re taking this thing to New York, giving it to the idiot with more money than sense, then going out for dinner. My treat.”

“Who cares about dinner? I don’t think I could even eat a package of peanuts right now.” Arturo looked down at the bag. “I wish we could just get on the plane now. What is taking them so long?”

***

The quetzal was completely awake now. There were tiny pinpricks of light coming through the fabric around him and he could feel that he was somewhere else. He wasn’t in Guatemala, probably not even in South America anymore. The air tasted different. It tasted good enough for him to draw in great lungfuls, though, and his chest moved like a bellows.

Wherever he was, there was a good chance that if he was found he would be able to get himself back home if he got the attention of the humans around the humans that had stuffed him into this bag. Judging from the amount of noise around him, there were even more people than there had been before and that was a very good thing. They might be able to keep hiding him if only a few people saw what they were up to, but if a whole group of people saw there would be no way around it.

His beak made it impossible to actually smile, but there was a definite smirk in his heart as he pulled his foot back and prepared to kick at the same time he filled his lungs. When he got started this time, it was going to be epic.

***

“All I’m saying—“ Arturo didn’t get to finish whatever he was about to say. The bird in their bag had gone off like a bomb. It was squawking, the sound slightly strangled coming from inside the heavy canvas bag, and thrashing like it was a shark caught in a net. Alicia stripped off her jacket and tossed it over the bag, finally panicking.

“Shut up, shut up,” she said, squeezing her jacket around the bag. The bird responded by squawking louder. “No, no, no, it should have been enough. There were enough drugs in that syringe, I know there were!”

“Oh my God,” Arturo said, looking over at the door where three armed guards were coming toward them. “We’re going to get arrested. We’re going to jail.” The bird was still screaming and kicking and Arturo began debating the pros and cons of abandoning Alicia altogether and running for it. Sure, he’d be a fugitive but at least he wouldn’t be in prison. “Do something!”

The guards were almost on them now, shouting in Spanish too rapid for Arturo to understand and pointing at the bag. Alicia stood up and held up her hands, and the bird’s squawking suddenly stopped. They all stared at the bag and the jacket it was under. Then, from under the jacket a beautiful red and green bird emerged and shook its head. One bright black bead of an eye looked around the airport and the quetzal clicked its beak.

It seems that every November the same thing happens to me. With a total of 58,066 words, I won NaNoWriMo on November 17th. I was doing 5,000 or 6,000 words on a daily basis and having a hell of a time. Then I crossed the finish line, finished the chapter I was on and promptly slowed waaaaaaaaaay down.

This is almost exactly what happened to me when I was writing the first draft of Escape a couple of years back. I wrote until I was at the brink of sanity and then just stopped. I’m still writing it and still enjoying it but I’ve kind of slowed down.

In any case, I won. I’m glad I did it, as always, and I’m planning on putting this crazy amount of effort into another project that just sort of occurred to me today while I was at work listening to an interminable amount of Christmas music. It’s going to take a lot of effort and some research, and there’s no way I’ll be able to hold off until April and Camo NaNoWriMo but I’m excited about it!

Thanks to Hamilton, I suddenly hear the chorus singing “how do you write like tomorrow won’t arrive? How do you write like you need it to survive? How do you write every second you’re alive, every second you’re alive, every second you’re alive?”

This week’s prompt is one of mine! It was Thanksgiving so I decided to make this story holiday-themed. I’m also a huge fan of horrible gelatin molds and this is actually from a recipe I saw online. It’s safe to say that at some point, some poor soul actually consumed turkey salad with a cranberry-orange gelatin ring. The 60s and 70s were super exciting.

Turkey Surprise

“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Elsbeth said, staring at the back of the gelatin box. “Everyone’s going to hate us. Is this stuff even any good anymore?”

“Sure it is,” Jesusa said. “Jell-O is eternal.”

“I thought that was Twinkies. How many packets do we need?” She opened the box, which was old enough to be a little soggy, and took out two of the little envelopes.

“Um, two. Wait, hang on,” Jesusa flipped through the pages of the cookbook. “I know it’s in here.” The pages of the cookbook were stuck together in places and she peeled them carefully apart. The last thing she wanted was to tear them.

“Why are we doing this?”

“Because I’m sick of coming to their Thanksgiving dinners every year, eating their dry turkey, and listening to them tell us that our relationship is unnatural and we’re going to Hell for it.” Jesusa continued to flip through the pages of the cookbook. “If they want unnatural, I’ll show them unnatural. I want to watch them either choke it down or refuse to get near it so I can give them a guilt trip for a change.”

“Maybe we should just stop going,” Elsbeth said. “Every year you get so stressed out about it that you end up with a migraine the next day. We could do a nice Thanksgiving dinner together, just the two of us, and watch 70’s movies for dessert.”

“Because I love my Abuelita. She’s the one who gave me this cookbook, you know. Said it might be of use to me one day. If anyone gives me shit about this meal, I’m going to say it came from Abuelita’s cookbook.” She smiled, and Elsbeth knew she couldn’t argue with this. Theresa Machado was Jesusa’s favorite relative and she would have done just about anything for her. She was in amazing health for 108 years old, liked to smoke cigars she claimed to have hoarded from the Cuban embargo days, and was the only person in Jesusa’s family that approved of her engagement to Elsbeth. “Oh, here it is. Okay, it’s two 3 ounce packages of strawberry or one 6 ounce. I guess we can use two of the unflavored and put in extra cranberry sauce.”

“Okay,” Elsbeth said, taking out the two packets and shaking them down. She tore the tops off and poured them into the bowl. A strange smell came up from the powder. It smelled dusty and almost herbal. “Is it supposed to smell like this?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never smelled unflavored gelatin before. But this is a vintage cookbook. It’s only fitting that we should use vintage gelatin.” She smoothed the pages out and laid the book on the counter. “Now we need to zest and cut up a couple of oranges.”

“When do we put in the turkey cubes?”

“We don’t. Just the oranges and nuts and cranberry sauce. The turkey gets made into salad and tossed in the center with the onions and celery.” Jesusa smiled and looked at Elsbeth, who was pouring hot water onto the gelatin. “This almost sounds like it could be good.”

“Probably just a little old. The orange zest will cover it up. Now I need to shred the turkey, not cube it. Or at least cut it up a little thinner.” Jesusa took the turkey they’d baked the day before out of the refrigerator and set it on the counter. “Hmm.”

“Let me do that. You’re terrible with a knife.”

“It’s fine.”

“Give me the knife,” Elsbeth said with a sigh. She held out a hand and Jesusa dropped the knife into it a little harder than she intended. “Ow! Oh, dammit,” Elsbeth dropped the knife and grabbed a paper towel, wrapping it around her finger but not before a few drops of blood fell into the bowl. “Aw, man, I got blood in the gelatin.”

“It’ll be fine,” Jesusa said. “I’m not going to eat it, but it’ll be fine.” She grinned. “No one will see it with the cranberry sauce anyway.” Elsbeth squeezed her finger and raised an eyebrow at Jesusa. “I’ll pour this into the mold while you clean that out, then you can show me how to cut the turkey properly.”

“Yes ma’am,” Jesusa said, watching her head upstairs to the bathroom where the first aid kit was. She pulled the bowl of gelatin to her and stirred in the cranberry sauce and oranges. The slight threads of red in the gelatin disappeared into the cranberry and she smiled. No one would ever know.

Just as she thought this, there was a bright flash that turned everything in the kitchen brilliant for a moment. Jesusa shielded her eyes, dropping the spoon on the counter. The kitchen was plunged into darkness and the floor felt like it was shifting. Footsteps thundered overhead, then down the stairs, and in the dark it was almost more disorienting than the flash of light.

“Feel what?” Elsbeth picked up the spoon from the counter and tossed it in the sink. “Dammit, we’re going to have to set all the clocks again. I hate that.” She grabbed the gelatin mold from the dish rack and poured the mixture into it. “Shortest power outage ever.”

“Probably had something to do with that surge.” Jesusa picked up the knife and started carving the turkey. Elsbeth put the gelatin in the refrigerator and frowned.

Noon came and went at Jesusa and Elsbeth’s house, and no one arrived. The turkey salad and cranberry ring sat in the middle of the table surrounded by stuffing, sweet potato casserole, and roasted vegetables. They’d opened the wine half an hour earlier and were almost at the bottom of it when Elsbeth finally spoke up.

“I guess someone must have told them about the gelatin mold.” It was a feeble attempt to make her fiancée smile and Jesusa gave her the smallest of half-smiles before she drained her wine glass. “It’s okay, Jess. If they’re going to be petty enough to bail on a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner over a couple of lesbians then they don’t deserve it anyway.”

“They’re my family,” Jesusa said. She stood up from the table and went into the kitchen. There was a second bottle of wine on the counter and she picked it up, considering whether or not she should open it. It didn’t seem that there was anyone else coming to drink it so she popped the cork and took it into the dining room.

“I’ve got a great idea,” Elsbeth said. “Why don’t we—“ A knock at the door cut her off and Jesusa set down the bottle down and hurried toward the front door. Elsbeth finished her wine and joined her, slipping her hand into Jesusa’s as she opened the door.

An old woman was standing on the front steps with a cane. Her back was straight and she was wearing a red suit that looked brand new. Her silver hair was pulled into a bun but the smile on her face made it somehow less severe. Theresa Machado didn’t look a day over 85, and she held out an arm for her great-granddaughter to hug her.

“Abuelita!” Jesusa hugged her tightly. “You came!”

“Of course I came,” Theresa said, her thickly accented voice as strong as the day she’d come to America. “Hello, Beth.”

“Hi, Abuelita,” Elsbeth said, hugging the old woman. “Please come in. No one else is here but I’d love to get you a glass of wine.”

“Thank you, mija,” she said, joining the two younger women. “No one else is coming.”

“I figured as much,” Jesusa said. “I guess there’s just some stuff they can’t get over.” She closed the door, and just as she did the phone in the kitchen began to ring. Jesusa and Elsbeth looked at each other. No one ever called the house phone. Something didn’t feel right but Theresa was the only person who seemed calm. She sat down at the head of the table and took out a cigar while Jesusa went into the kitchen to answer the phone. “Hello?”

She listened to the person on the other line, ice slowly spreading through her veins as they spoke. Her heart pumped it, sending goosebumps up and down her arms. Elsbeth stood in the doorway, her brown eyes questioning, and Jesusa heard herself saying something but even a second later couldn’t remember what it was. When she hung up, she missed the charger and the phone clattered to the countertop noisily. Elsbeth went to her and put a hand on her shoulder.

“What’s wrong?”

“They’re dead,” Jesusa said, feeling as though someone had hollowed out her chest. It was as if someone else was speaking with her mouth, and she looked at Elsbeth. “Dead.”

“Who’s dead?”

“All of them. Everyone.” There was a strange, staticky sound in Jesusa’s head and she closed her eyes. “They said it looks like heart attacks. All of them.” She leaned against the counter and took a shaky breath. “Some of them happened last night when people were around. They found the rest this morning.” She opened her eyes. “It looks like they all died at the same time.”

“They did,” a voice said, and both women looked up to see Theresa standing in the doorway to the kitchen. She was smiling serenely, and the smoke from her cigar smelled sweet and herbal. Jesusa opened her mouth to ask what she meant and the lights went out again. A soft blue light emanated from Theresa like a halo and she took a long drag of her cigar. “Come, mija. Let’s eat. I don’t think I’ve been this hungry in years.”

This week’s prompt came from the mind behind the 52 Week Short Story Challenge, SM Cadman!

I really enjoyed this one, in case you couldn’t tell when you’re reading it. It took me forever to put it up, though, mainly because I had a stressful couple of days at work and by the time I could get to wifi to post it my hair was wet and it was cold outside. First world problem, I know.

Double Exposure

“Welcome to Photo Express, how may I help you?” The photo technician behind the counter was almost too friendly and Emily smiled at him.

“I have some pictures for Emily Perrine,” she said. “I uploaded them about half an hour ago.”

“I think those just finished printing,” the tech said. “Let me go take a look.” He turned and went through a small door into the back of the lab and Emily looked around. A variety of photo products were arranged on the shelves, from hardcover books with smiling kids on the front to t-shirts with more smiling kids on them. There was even what looked like a stadium blanket and she lifted the corner to see if there was a price tag, curious to see how much someone would pay for a blanket with their kids’ faces on it.

“It’s ridiculous,” a voice from the counter said. It didn’t sound like the photo tech, and Emily turned to see who had spoken. There was only one other person in the photo lab, a young woman who looked about the same age as Emily. Her dark hair fell around her face in thick curls so perfect they could have come out of a magazine, and she was wearing a blousy tank top under a thin cardigan. A long necklace, dark skinny jeans and flats completed the look, and Emily felt like she should have put something a little nicer than yoga pants and a baggy t-shirt. It was a nice t-shirt, but it wasn’t in this other girl’s league.

“Excuse me?”

“The blanket. The price is ridiculous.” The brunette looked up at Emily, tucking a curl behind her ear and making her self-conscious about her red ponytail. She pointed at a small binder on the counter by the photo products. “The prices are in there.”

“Oh,” Emily said, at a loss for what else to say. She went over to the binder and opened it. As much as she wanted to strike up a conversation with the other woman, she also knew she wouldn’t be able to rest without knowing what she considered to be a ridiculous price. Emily ran her finger down the list of prices until she found ‘personalized throw’ and nearly choked when she saw the price. “Eighty-five dollars?”

“Yup.” She looked back down at the photos on the counter and pursed her lips. Emily closed the binder a little more heavily than necessary.

“That’s more than ridiculous,” Emily said. She joined the brunette at the counter and she looked up at Emily curiously. “It’s criminal.” She stuck out her hand. “I’m Emily.”

“Russe,” the other woman said, shaking her hand with a smile. “Nice to meet you. You printing pictures for a wedding scrapbook too?”

“No, baby book. I was the designated photographer at the baby shower, and my job included getting the pictures done so my friend’s mom can paste them in the book with some way too intricate borders and give it to Jamie while she’s high on whatever they give you during childbirth now.” Emily looked at the photo product wall. “Maybe I should take a brochure.”

“Tell her about the blanket. Grandmothers love stuff like that,” Russe said, leaning over the photographs. “The wedding scrapbook is kind of a group effort. A bunch of us have been taking pictures and we’re going to give it to her when she comes back from her honeymoon. We’re planning on getting together a couple of times to work on it and have some drinks.”

“That sounds fun,” Emily said. She looked around the lab and her eyes fell on a small display of film. It was stuck in the corner so she almost didn’t see it, but she laughed when she did. Russe looked around to see what she was laughing at. “Film,” Emily said, pointing at the stand. “Real, honest-to-god film for cameras.”

“Really?” Russe followed her finger and abandoned her photos on the counter to go pick up one of the small, faded paper boxes. “I can’t even believe people still use this stuff. I mean, besides professional photographers.”

“I don’t even think they do, to be honest,” Emily said. She joined Russe at the display and picked up a box, then turned it around to see if film had an expiration date. “The last time I had to deal with a pro, they had a handful of memory cards.”

“Easier to store, I guess. I’ve lost them before, though, at a music festival. I’d lose it completely if it was my job though. Can you imagine reaching into your pocket and your whole weekend’s work just being gone? I’d be drowning my sorrows before noon.” This made Emily laugh, and she was trying to think of something else to say when the photo tech came from the back with a small, colorful cardboard envelope in his hand.

“Here you go, Miss Perrine. You want to take a look at those before you pay?”

“That would be great,” Emily said, going back to the counter with Russe. She took the envelope from the tech and opened it while Russe went back to picking through her photos. Emily took hers out and spread them on the counter like Russe had. She wasn’t sure she would have done it if the other woman hadn’t done it first but it seemed like the right thing to do.

“Excuse me,” Russe said, waving to the tech. “A couple of these only printed on half the paper.” He hurried over and looked at the pictures.

“I’m sorry about that,” he said. “Sometimes the roll gets thrown off. I’ll be happy to reprint those for you. Check the others to make sure these are the only ones.” He turned his attention to Emily. “Could you check yours thoroughly too? I’d hate for you to get home and find that yours were wrong.” She nodded and Russe looked over at her pictures.

“Any good ones in here?”

“There are a couple,” Emily said, blushing a little. She tugged one out of the bunch and showed Russe. In it a woman with an almost comically distended abdomen was holding up a handmade quilt and beaming. “I made this.”

“You did? That’s gorgeous!” Russe reached down and started pushing around the pictures. Emily was still humming with happiness over Russe saying she liked the quilt so she let her do it. “Are there any more? I really—“ Her words were cut off abruptly as she saw something among the pictures that had surprised her. “Who’s this?”

“Who?” Emily looked at the picture she was pointing at. In it she was standing with a sandy-haired man who was grinning at the camera. His arm was around her shoulders, drawing her to him, and they looked like the perfect couple. She blushed even harder. “That’s Everett. My boyfriend.”

“Your boyfriend?” Russe shoved the pictures back at her, then snatched a picture from her pile and shoved it at Emily. “Everett is my boyfriend!”

Emily was speechless. It was definitely Everett, and the picture was similar to the one she had taken with him at the beach, only they were on a hiking trail. His arm was around Russe and she was kissing him on the cheek, something that suggested he had been with her longer. Emily’s stomach had gone cold and hard, and she tried to think of something to say. As horrible as Everett’s betrayal made her feel, the thought that the connection she thought she’d made with Russe had been permanently severed was almost worse.

“We’ve only been going out about two weeks,” Emily said, trying her hardest to justify something that wasn’t her fault. “I didn’t know he was seeing someone.”

“Two weeks?” Russe’s anger seemed to be deflating like a balloon before Emily’s eyes, and she nodded. Russe took the picture of her and Everett and crushed it into a ball in her hand. “I’ve only been dating the jerk for three. Guess it’s better to find out now, huh?”

“Yeah,” Emily said, relieved. She watched Russe pick the photos of herself and Everett out of the stack and tear them in half, wondering how long it would take the woman to call her ex-boyfriend and tear him a new one. Emily’s first instinct was to be angry as well, but it somehow didn’t hurt as much as she would have expected. A crazy idea came to Emily all at once and she cleared her throat. Russe looked over at her with still-blazing eyes.

“What is it?”

“This might be the worst time to ask, but would you like to get something to eat with me?” She smiled at Russe, hoping she wasn’t making a huge mistake. If she was, it was going to be an embarrassing wait for the tech to come back and check her out. Russe didn’t say anything at first and Emily continued to smile as she planned her exit. Abandoning the pictures would put a crimp in her baby book plans but the sooner she could get home to a pint of gelato the better.

“Are you asking me out?” Russe didn’t look angry. The look on her face was more surprised and Emily nodded.

“Yes?”

“All right,” Russe said, her face breaking into a smile. “I’d love to.” She scooped the pictures she hadn’t torn up into a pile and stuffed them into the envelope. “Excuse me,” she called back through the door to the technician. “We’d like to go ahead and pay!” Emily, unable to believe her luck, stuck all the prints but the ones of her and Everett into the envelope and pulled out her wallet.

“I’m just reprinting the ones that were half-printed,” the tech said.

“Here,” Russe said. She shoved the torn pictures across the counter at him. “I’ll pay for them but I want you to throw them away.”

“Mine too,” Emily said. The tech looked at the pictures, frowned, then looked at the women in surprise. Emily was trying to think of something to say when Russe put her arm around her waist and smiled at her, causing her to blush furiously.

“You know what?” Russe took out her wallet and threw thirty dollars on the counter. “Keep the change. If you’re buying me lunch, I can pay for the stupid pictures. Come on.” She nodded toward the door and Emily went, still not quite believing what had happened. It wasn’t how she’d expected her day to go but this was much, much better.

“What are you going to tell Everett?”

“Oh, I’ve got a pretty good idea.” With a smirk, Russe stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and took out her phone. She held it at arm’s length so that both she and Emily were in the frame, then stuck up her middle finger. Grinning, Emily did the same and Russe snapped the picture, then sent it in a text message with no words. “I’m starving,” she said, dropping her phone into her bag.

I tried to make it feel a little mundane, like something that could happen to any of us, but I’m not sure I succeeded.

Always Check the Reviews

When she walked into the computer repair shop, Seo-yeon Kim wasn’t sure she’d come to the right place. There were only two men in it and one of them was apparently having an argument with someone on the phone while he stared at the computer on the table in front of him. She couldn’t help thinking that this wasn’t the most professional way to behave with a customer in the shop but he didn’t so much as bat an eye when she came in.

“How may I help you?” The second man got up and Seo-yeon saw on the tag on his shirt that his name was Brent.

“I’m Seo-yeon Kim, I think we spoke on the phone.” She opened the bag slung over her shoulder and took out a black box. It took more strength than she was accustomed to, and Brent’s eyebrow raised slightly.

“Yeah, I remember you. This is your mom’s computer, right?”

“Right,” she said, setting the laptop on the counter. “And as I’m sure you can tell, it’s been a long time since it was in warranty.” Brent spun the computer so it was facing him and opened it. Its screen remained dark and Seo-yeon rummaged in the bag. “Sorry. I don’t know when the last time she charged it was. It doesn’t hold a charge for very long anymore anyway.”

“We can get her set up with a new battery,” Brent said. “Provided we can fix it. Sometimes with these older models it’s cheaper just to buy a new value model, especially if she’s not using it for any heavy lifting.” He took the charger from her and plugged it in. “What’s going on with it?”

“I’m not entirely sure. She just called me up last night and said her computer wouldn’t work, then asked me to come fix it.” She sighed. “I have no idea what to do with her computer, I make pottery.”

“Pottery?” Brent smiled. “That sounds cool.”

“It’s pretty fun. My brother and I do it together and sell it online. That’s pretty much the extent of my computer knowledge, though. Twitter, Facebook, and Etsy.” Seo-yeon watched him boot up the computer.

“You don’t have a website?”

“We do, but it’s pretty basic. We’re looking for someone to make us a real one now that we’re making some money.” She leaned over the counter and looked at the screen. The Windows screen was still on it and she looked up at Brent. “Do you know anyone?”

“I do a little web design in my spare time,” he said. “If you’re interested, I can give you my info.”

“That’d be great,” Seo-yeon said, her eyes widening. She and her brother had been looking for a web designer for months and hadn’t found anyone that was both in their budget and professional, but if he worked at a computer repair shop there was a good chance this guy would work out. The computer had come on by that point and Brent was looking at it curiously.

“Hmm,” he said. “This is interesting. I’ve never seen this happen before.” He turned it to face Seo-yeon and she could see that the screen had gone to black, and windows were opening and closing all over the place. From what she could see before they disappeared, long strings of gibberish filled them. As much as she hated to admit it, she had halfway been expecting to see porn windows. After all, her father used it too and he wasn’t terribly internet-savvy.

“What is it? Do you know?”

“A virus, I’m sure,” Brent said, turning the computer back to face him. “I’m sure I can fix it, it’ll just take me a couple of days. Do you know if your mother backed it up anytime recently?” Seo-yeon sighed heavily.

“I doubt it. I don’t think she even knows what a backup is.” To be fair, the only reason Seo-yeon had experience with backups was because her brother insisted she do them regularly. He was the one who took all the pictures of their work for the listings and he didn’t want to lose them to something as stupid as a power surge. “She’s going to lose everything, huh?”

“I’ll do my best but that’s probably the case.” Brent looked over his shoulder at the other technician, who had taken a short break from shouting. Seo-yeon assumed it was because he’d hung up the phone and she couldn’t help being a little relieved. She hadn’t realized how hard it was to hear herself think until he’d stopped. “Give me—“ he looked at his watch, then back at Seo-yeon “—an hour with it. I’ll see if I can get a better idea of what we’re looking at, then I can give you a quote.”

“Sure,” she said. “I’ll go grab some lunch. Thanks.” They shook hands and Seo-yeon headed for the door with her phone in hand, intending to find someplace cheap and cute in the neighborhood. She stood outside the shop and looked around, trying to see what streets were nearby. Nothing looked familiar so she decided to let Yelp’s location finder do the work for her.

She was just opening Yelp when she heard shouting coming from the shop behind her, loud enough to make her jump. It didn’t sound like the first technician’s voice and she hoped he and Brent hadn’t gotten into an argument.

What could they have possibly gotten into a fight about in less than five minutes? Curious, she backed up to the shop so that she was closer to the window while still looking at her phone. She shifted her eyes to the shop with her head still bent, keeping herself behind the window decal that read ‘Computer Repair’ in tall blue letters. Her mouth fell open when she saw what Brent was shouting at.

He was standing in front of her mother’s computer, looking down at it. Unlike his partner, there was no phone in his hand or any indication he was talking to someone else. From what she could see, it looked like Brent was shouting at the computer.

What the hell is going on here? Seo-yeon forgot that she was trying to be subtle and stared into the shop. She couldn’t tell exactly what Brent was shouting about but he was really getting into it. It didn’t look like he was even doing anything to fix the computer, just yelling at it. While she was wondering whether or not she should go back in to see what the problem was, the other technician started shouting at the other computer. His voice was louder than Brent’s and Seo-yeon could hear him cursing, berating everything from the operating system to the hard drive.

Stunned, and at a loss for what else she should do, she looked up at the sign. WYACR Inc. was written over the door and Seo-yeon frowned. She’d never considered what the letters stood for when she looked them up, only that she’d found them under Computer Repair on Google. It had been a promoted ad and they’d had the lowest price she could find so she’d thought she would give them a chance. Now it seemed like a good idea to find out.

Since she already had Yelp open, she typed in WYACR Inc. and tried to ignore the two voices shouting behind her. She was dismayed to see several one and two star reviews at the top and scrolled down. One review caught her eye and she paused.

* DO NOT TAKE YOUR COMPUTER HERE. I brought my computer here because it wasn’t turning on and they not only didn’t fix it, they kept it for two weeks and I had to call them to find out what was going on. Turns out they don’t even know how to fix computers, they just take your ‘consultation fee’ and tell you to take it somewhere else. I should have known better than to trust guys from We Yell At Computers Repair Inc.! I have no idea how these guys are still in business. STAY AWAY! —Viveca A.

Seo-yeon looked up from her phone and into the shop. Brent was still yelling at the computer and his face had turned red from the effort. Deciding she wasn’t going to wait another forty-five minutes, Seo-yeon turned around and went back into the shop. Both Brent and his partner stopped shouting and looked at her.

“Miss Kim? Is something wrong?” There was sweat on his forehead and she looked from him to the other young man. She was literally speechless, so she did the first thing she could think of. Without a word, she reached across the counter, grabbed her mother’s laptop and ran out of the store. “Wait, Miss Kim! Come back!”

Halfway down the street, she realized she’d left the charger in the shop. Deciding she’d just buy her mother another one, Seo-yeon pointed her car in the direction of the nearest Best Buy and started driving. “Should’ve just gone there in the first place,” she muttered to herself. She sighed.

I am excited and proud to be taking part in NaNoWriMo again this year!

I’ve been doing NaNo since 2002 (!!!) when I was living in Colorado and doing my externship for my vet tech degree. I stumbled upon it while probably whining about something on Livejournal and thought it sounded kinda fun and terrifying at the same time.

My memories of that first NaNoWriMo are a little hazy but I still remember parts of it with amazing clarity. Writing on my lunch break, taking the weird little mini word processor I had everywhere so I could write a little whenever I was sitting still, calling for my husband to bring me another Coke so I didn’t have to get up and get one myself. It was cold already in Colorado and even though it’s not particularly cold now I’m still under a blanket because it feels right.

every year I feel a little more comfortable but I still have that same feeling of panic when I look at my word count and I’m not where I want to be. That first NaNo I completely pantsed it but now I usually work off some sort of an outline.

This year I’m working off an old outline and writing the second part of the Escape trilogy. A Couple of years ago I wrote the first part of Escape for NaNo and though a lot of stuff has been changed and rewritten, I have discovered the zest for it again that I had lost. More about what changed that for me later.

Saturday morning I was way behind on my novel but thanks to determination and word sprints (which didn’t even exist when I first started doing NaNo) I’m back up to par. Hopefully today I’ll be able to get my word count up enough to support a day or two of sad numbers. Work is hard, y’all.

Then we take that information to the Most Dangerous Writing App and write for three terrifying minutes then share the results. This is what happened:

Sacked

“What are you doing?” Brandy looked at Sammy in surprise as she walked to her car. The sun was just coming up but he was headed back to the factory with what looked like a duffel bag under his arm. “Let’s go to the Waffle House and I’ll buy us some hashbrowns.”

“Sure,” Brandy said with a laugh. “And then later we’ll tear down some voting booths too. Full-on anarchy will ensue, I’m sure.” She opened her car door. “Come on, I’ve got my dad’s car. Hashbrowns. And waffles, if you play your cards right.” Sammy didn’t answer her, only walked toward the building in the midst of the crowd of people that were coming out of the open doors. Cursing, she relocked her door and ran after him. “Sammy,” Brandy called. “Seriously, what are you doing?”